Deep in the Copper Forest, where the leaves glistened as if someone had sprinkled them with silver filings, three friends – Mila, Igor and Lena – wandered with their torches among the roots and ferns. It was quiet here, surprisingly quiet, as if the forest was holding its breath, waiting for something unusual to happen. They were about to head back when Lena tripped over something hard. ‘What’s that?’ she whispered, pulling a large, old clock on a tall base from under the moss. The clock was covered in intricate symbols they had never seen before. The hands spun in the opposite direction and the clock face glowed with a green light. Igor looked at the clock, fascinated. ‘I don’t think this is an ordinary clock. I feel… something strange, as if the air was thickening next to it.’ Mila brought her hand closer to the dial, but as soon as she touched the cold metal, everything around her trembled, as if reality had lost its balance for a moment. For a brief moment, they saw other trees, other skies; everything shifted and blurred. ‘Did we… did we really see that?’ Lena asked quietly, clutching a twig in her hand like a talisman. There was a misty figure in the air, and the clock chimed a quiet, inappropriate rhythm. Whispers began to come from the woods, some familiar, some unfamiliar. The friends looked at each other, terrified and fascinated at the same time. ‘Maybe we should leave it…’ Igor suggested, but Mila shook her head. ‘We can’t. It’s like a door. The question is: where does it lead?’ Above their heads, a light flashed, and the clock began to strike an hour that no known time had ever known…